Student Blog: Student Life at Wagner College

Hi again readers! For those of you who don’t know, I am a freshman Theatre Performance major at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York. My first semester as a college student is coming to a close and, honestly, I cannot say enough good things about my school. One of my favorite things about my college experience so far is the people I‘ve met and the memories I’ve made with my friends on and off campus. Any incoming college student may wonder what student life on campus is actually like, especially for theatre majors, and I’m here to tell you about student life on my campus so you can gain some insight. Also, if you’re interested in coming to Wagner for theatre or something else, this information could be helpful! 

One thing that I’ll tell you right off the bat is that the theatre majors are BUSY here, even the freshmen. There are no restrictions about what you can or cannot audition for and freshmen are allowed to audition for basically everything from the beginning so almost all students are involved in at least one show during a semester. At Wagner, there are four mainstage shows produced every year, one dance concert per semester, and multiple student organizations that put on productions every semester such as Completely Student Productions (CSP), Student Run Musical Theatre (SRMT), and Shakespeare on the Oval (SOTO) in which students perform Shakespeare productions outside on a large oval of grass outside Main Hall. Therefore, there isn’t much free time outside of doing theatre and completing classwork for the theatre students here because people are constantly working. Needless to say, we make it work though. The theatre department at Wagner is small, although our freshmen class is relatively large this year, so everyone kind of integrates with one another from the beginning and students host fun activities and themed events after rehearsals. Oftentimes, the student theatre organizations produce events where we can gather like the Student Run Musical Theatre “Middle School Dance” Fundraiser I attended earlier this month. The theme of the event was to dress how you would when you were in middle school, as you can tell from the title, and there were raffles, food, music, a photobooth, dance floor, etc. That’s the kind of thing you’ll get here as far as theatre student life goes at Wagner in addition to the occasional dorm party. 

There are fraternities and sororities at Wagner for anyone who is interested in Greek life and, although I wouldn’t consider Wagner a Greek school, there is always the opportunity to join and some theatre majors do partake. Sometimes the Greek houses will have events and parties that anyone can go to like the Theta Chi Halloween party my friends attended. All in all, however, Wagner is definitely not the biggest party school. There are a decent number of commuter students enrolled at Wagner which, I’m sure, helps push student life off campus. Off campus on Staten Island and, of course, Manhattan is where a lot of student recreation happens. My friends and I enjoy going to the local malls and the AMC movie theatre at the Staten Island Mall when we go off campus to hang out. There are also some local thrift stores and MANY restaurants (you can get basically any type of food here on Staten Island) that most students like to hit up or at least DoorDash. In Manhattan, you basically have access to anything and since the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan is free and easy to travel to from Wagner, students frequently go into the city. What can I say, when you have the opportunity of going to Manhattan to hang out… you take advantage of it. 

As far as other events that attract students on campus go, the sports teams at Wagner are Division 1 so a lot of people like to attend their games. I’m not really a sports person but the games can still be fun to watch for people like me because, at the football games for example, the cheer team, dance team, and marching band perform! I’d say the theatre program makes its contributions to Wagner’s on campus student life because we’re constantly producing shows that students will come out to watch. Right now, on the mainstage, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s A Grand Night For Singing is running so that’s what’s on the market currently for all students to attend. Men on Boats is another show (my roommate is in it!) that's running currently at Stage One, Wagner's blackbox theatre. There are also many music groups on campus like the Wagner College Treble Choir, which I participated in this semester, that will perform the occasional concert which is free for students to attend. 

That’s all I got for you all this time around! I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more posts next month.

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